Let's back up to last Thursday, when Maggie was able to surprise her cousin for her Senior Night volleyball game. These three girls went to the same schools, played on the same teams, and have always been like sisters instead of cousins, for which I have been very grateful.
On Friday I took the day off from work, hit the gym, and then went out to brunch with my mom and my daughter or "The Margarets" as my mom is Maggie, my middle name is Margaret, and my girl is Maggie. Then Maggie and I got our eyebrows threaded and shopped at TJ Maxx before heading home for a nap. The best. On Saturday, we went for a family walk to appreciate the fall colors before they leaf :)
Four years ago, our "goddaughter" Haley married Jonathan and had the most beautiful wedding, everything a girl could dream of, and the fruit of lots of plans. What was not in the plans, however, was spending the next four years trying to conceive a baby. Month after month of being disappointed, while doing everything medically possible as Catholics, was so very difficult for them. During times like this, there is not much one can do except pray, and pray we did. Every morning in the car on the way to school, at least one of us would pray for Haley to have a baby, each rosary at night was offered for a baby, every family novena was prayed with the specific intention of Haley getting pregnant.
We were at Mass one summer Sunday, and out pastor mentioned that our parish would be participating in a 54 day Rosary Novena. But what really caught my ear was that it was set to start on Brendan's birthday and end on Phil's birthday. We got into the car after Mass and I told our family that we were being called to do this novena. I printed out a calendar and hung it on the fridge to keep track:
Almost everyone in the family prayed the novena for Haley and Jonathan to have a baby. I have to admit that I was so frustrated and tired of praying for something that obviously wasn't happening, that I chose a different seemingly impossible intention, because I am still only a practicing baby Catholic. But God is bigger than me and prayers are answered in his divine timing, and guess who came over with big news to tell the kids right after their Novena ended:
We are all so very excited to welcome their baby girl Karoline (named after JP2 ~ Karol). You can hear in the video the kids telling Haley multiple times how much they had prayed for this. So sweet and strong is the faith of children.
